


Outdoor Bonding

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Series: A Life Together [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 09:32:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16890033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: The Doctor takes Luke and Clyde camping.





	Outdoor Bonding

 Clyde walked into the open door of Luke’s room to see his friend packing his backpack. “Camping with the Doctor. Not that I’m a camping man myself, but how can I say no to that?”

 “Have you ever been camping? Other than that school trip we all went on?”

 “I don’t know if we can really count that, what with it being more looking for a shape-shifting alien who was going around pretending to be us than campfire stories and stuff. Once, before I met you. But I was little, and don’t remember much about it.”

 Luke got the feeling it involved Clyde’s father, and didn’t ask about what he did remember about it.

 Both turned at the knock on the doorframe. The Doctor grinned at them. “Ah good, you’re here, Clyde. You two just about ready to go?”

 “Just about,” Luke answered, stuffing another shirt in his bag.

 “I’ll be waiting.” The Doctor left them with a little wave.

 The two younger men left Luke’s room a minute later, and went up to the attic. Sarah turned from her computer to them. “You all set?”

 “Think so,” Clyde nodded.

 “Anything else we need that we might have forgotten, the Tardis can provide,” the Doctor said, stepping out of the half-open door of the ship.

 Sarah stood and approached the three. She pulled Luke and Clyde into a hug. “Have fun.” She let them go. “And stay out of trouble.”

 “They’re with me,” the Doctor assured, taking Sarah’s hand to pull her into a kiss.

 “That’s why I’m worried. Staying out of trouble goes double for you,” Sarah teased when they separated.

 “I have a nice quiet place planned,” the Timelord replied.

 Sarah chuckled. “Alright, get out of here. Have a good time.” K9 also bid them goodbye.

 As the three entered the Tardis, Clyde pointed out, “Hey, you haven’t told us where we’re going.”

 “Another planet?” Luke suggested.

 “Oh, such impatience,” the Doctor teased as he set the Tardis into motion. “You’ll see in a minute. Maybe two.”

 Luke and Clyde looked through the supplies next to the interior door. “I think we’re prepared,” Luke assessed.

 A couple minutes after taking off, the Tardis landed, and the Doctor quickly stepped outside. He strode back in with a pleased smile. “Perfect. Come on, it’s a bit of a hike to the spot.”

 “Couldn’t land us directly?” Clyde questioned with a raised brow.

 “I could have,” the Timelord admitted with a shrug. “But a hike would be fun, and help us get acclimatized. Don’t worry, it’s not a difficult path.”

 Luke shouldered his backpack and another bag on the floor. “Shall we get going?”

 The Doctor and Clyde picked up the other bags of supplies, and headed out. They glanced around at the forest surroundings. The trees were dark blue with blue-and-red-dotted leaves. The grass was a lighter shade of blue. “Alien planet,” Luke approved.

 The Doctor locked the Tardis door, and began to lead the other two to the trail.

 When the Doctor pointed up, the younger men looked up to see a purple-tinted sunlight filtering through the leaves.

 “Beautiful,” Clyde breathed.

 True to the Doctor’s word, the camp spot wasn’t too far or hard of a hike away from the Tardis. They emerged from the trees to a clearing, and the Doctor announced, “Here we are.”

 Clyde nodded. “Yeah, this looks like a nice spot.”

 They set down their bag and supplies. The Doctor opened the tent pack, and Clyde teased, “Maybe I should let you engineer types get on with that without me,” before he joined the Timelord and Luke with putting it together.

 It didn’t take long to pitch the tent, which was certainly big and comfortable enough for the three of them. They set their bedding and blankets inside, and the Doctor instructed, “We can get the campfire set up, but we won’t need to light it for a few hours at least.”

 “Clyde and I can find some wood,” Luke volunteered.

 “Good lads,” the Doctor commented. “Find some about this wide and long.” He used his hands to show the ideal size of branches. He smiled fondly at them as they went back into the trees to do so. This had been his idea last week, and the positive response from the two young men had warmed his hearts.

 As the pair disappeared from sight, the Doctor started to set up the campfire spot.

 A pleasant bird calling sound slightly echoed through the forest. A few minutes into searching for good wood for the fire, Clyde suddenly said, “It’s so cool that you can call the Doctor your dad.”

 Luke bent down to pick up a branch. “Yeah, I suppose it is cool.”

 “Do you think about it when you do it?”

 Luke shrugged. “Not really. Just happens when I feel like it, I guess.”

 “Right.” Clyde was quiet as he collected a few branches. Then he snorted. “I wish I could do that. That would be absolutely cool.”

 “You wish you could call him your dad?”

 “Yeah, a bit. I mean… you know about mine. You even met him. I don’t…” Clyde suddenly regretted bringing this up. “I don’t hate mine, not any more, not for a while. But… I don’t know. He’s the Doctor. I… I look up to him. I wish I could’ve had someone like him.”

 Luke stared at his friend, intently listening. He encouraged him to go on with a little smile.

 “I mean, I do, I did. Sarah Jane’s always been great, and if it hadn’t been for her coming into my life when she did… but I wouldn’t call her Mum, and I certainly can’t call her Dad.”

 Luke laughed. “Yeah, that would be weird.”

 Clyde flashed an appreciative smile. Then he frowned slightly. “Maybe I don’t need to call him Dad, but… I don’t know, maybe I want to think of him as that. He’s certainly a better father figure than the one I had.” He sighed deeply. “What do you think? That wouldn’t be weird or uncool for you, would it?”

 Luke took a moment to think on it.

 “If it would be, then say so,” Clyde nervously said.

 Luke shook his head. “I wouldn’t be upset if you wanted to think of him like that. I was nervous when I asked Mum and the Doctor if it would be fine for me to call him Dad. I didn’t want it to be weird for them.”

 Clyde’s smile was still a little nervous as he said, “Thanks, for understanding.”

 “Anytime,” Luke said with an affectionate bump of his shoulder to his friend’s. They returned to the campsite a few minutes later, arms full of firewood.

 The Doctor placed another rock to close the circle for the fire. He looked up at the sound of rustling in the trees. “Ah, those’ll do well,” he praised of the branches the younger men had found.

 With the campfire taken care of, the Doctor suggested, “How about a spot of exploring?” All three were keen to explore the alien landscape.

 Clyde separated from the other two when he saw what looked like another clearing through the trees. He emerged from the treeline to another clearing a little smaller than the one their campsite was on, and his breath caught in his throat in amazement at the sight.

 The clearing ended with a cliff edge, and beyond was a large expanse of deep blue water, sparkling with the purplish sunlight and dotted with islands. He could see a river feeding the body of water from the left. The various shades of purple and blue of the sky made it seem as though the water never ended.

 “Beautiful, isn’t it?” the Doctor asked as he and Luke joined Clyde.

 “Yeah,” Luke agreed.

 “Breathtaking, more like,” Clyde remarked.

 “Thanks for bringing us here,” Luke said.

 “It’s no problem, especially because I wanted to.” The Doctor put his arms around both of them as they admired the sight before them.

 ********

 The sun was setting, the fire was started, and the Doctor took out some fish and vegetables to cook over it.

 Clyde rubbed his hands together as he suggested, “So, ghost stories?”

 The Doctor chuckled at the idea. “I don’t quite understand the desire of Humans to frighten themselves in unfamiliar settings.”

 “I’m sure us Humans aren’t the only ones who do that,” Clyde shrugged. “I wouldn’t believe that Timelords don’t ever do something like it.”

 “They’re not the most imaginative lot.”

 “Mum doesn’t believe in ghosts,” Luke stated. “Do you?”

 “The spiritual projection of a dead person’s consciousness into the physical world, to put it simply?”  

 “Sure, to put it simply,” Clyde teased.

 The Doctor hummed in thought. “I have seen similar phenomena, though I have discovered the mechanism for those instances. In general… there are many unexplained things in the universe. That’s part of the beauty of it, whether we are eventually able to explain it or not.” The Doctor turned the fish over in the pan.

 “So… is that a yes or no?” Luke asked.

 The Doctor flashed a teasing wide grin. “What do you think?”

 Luke and Clyde glanced to each other and laughed. Clyde answered, “I think it means you like being mysterious.”

 “Perhaps,” the Doctor shrugged. Then he grinned again. “I do have some stories that would certainly fit the ghostly idea. Let’s see…”

 Luke and Clyde leaned in closer as the Timelord began the story of his and Sarah’s adventure in Europa.

 ********

 Clyde left the tent to start making breakfast.

 The Doctor rolled over to find Luke still asleep. He propped himself up on his elbow to simply watch him. This young man who he wished he could’ve known when he was younger. He considered himself fortunate that he hadn’t missed out on getting to know him. And though he never made a big deal out of the instances when Luke called him Dad, he did appreciate it.

 Luke brow furrowed slightly as he stirred, and the Doctor tenderly moved the hair back from over the young man’s eye. He drew back in time as those eyes slowly opened.

 “Morning,” Luke greeted.

 “It feels like a good one,” the Doctor replied.

 Luke stretched his legs. “Did you and Mum ever go camping?”

 “A few times, not counting the camping instances during adventures. It’s nice to occasionally get outside and simply be, especially with good company.”

 Luke nodded his agreement as he sat up to stretch his arms. “Didn’t think she would be the type for it.”

 The Doctor chuckled a little and winked.

 “Breakfast is ready!” Clyde called to them.

 Luke opened the tent to be greeted by the smell of bacon and eggs.

  ********

 The Doctor found Clyde sitting near that cliff edge. He had his sketchbook on his lap, a coloured drawing of the view of the sea and islands half-finished. His pencils sat in their case on the grass beside him, except for the brown one in his hand. The Timelord quietly sat next to him, not wanting to break his concentration.

 A moment later, Clyde set down his pencil and inhaled deeply through his nose. “It’s really peaceful out here.”

 The Doctor nodded, and twirled the stem of a leaf between his fingers.

 “And really beautiful,” Clyde continued. “I don’t do landscapes much, but how could I not give a go at this one?”

 The Doctor leaned over to admire the in-progress work. “You’re doing it justice.”

 “Thanks. What’s Luke doing?”

 “Building something with branches and vines. I’m not sure what it is. I’m not sure he knows that yet, either.”

 Clyde laughed. “Give that boy anything, and he’ll try to make something awesome out of it.” He set his sketchbook down next to his pencils, and leaned back onto his elbows to stare up at the sky.

 The Doctor considered the sketchbook, and turned to the next empty page. “May I?” he asked.

 Clyde glanced down to understand what he meant. “Oh, yeah, sure. Go ahead.”

 “I’m more of a painter, but the concept is the same,” the Doctor remarked, picking up the book and choosing a pencil.

 “Sarah Jane mentioned you paint.”

 “I dabble in it.”

 “Can I see the ones you’ve done?”

 “Of course you can. They’re in the Tardis. I’ll show you when we leave.”

 Clyde looked back up to the sky again, not wanting to watch the Doctor draw in case he was shy about that.

 They sat in a comfortable quiet, simply enjoying each other’s company.

 Eventually, the Doctor got the feeling there was something on Clyde’s mind. “Penny for them?”

 Clyde shook his head. “Just, thanks for thinking to invite me.”

 “Why wouldn’t I?”

 “I don’t know.” Clyde shrugged, and closed his eyes with a little smile.

 The Doctor focused on his drawing for the next few minutes, switching out the coloured pencils as needed. Then he suddenly said, “You’re Sarah’s, aren’t you?”

 Clyde sat up fully to look at the Timelord. “What?”

 “Do you consider yourself as Sarah’s?” The Doctor didn’t look up from his drawing.

 “Yeah, I guess. I mean, in a way she’s like… Yeah, I do.”

 “Then that also makes you mine,” The Doctor stated matter-of-factly. “If you like.”

 Clyde opened his mouth, but couldn’t respond as a warmth built in his chest. It spread when the Doctor held up his finished drawing for him to see. It was of him, his face and hair outlined and shaded with accurate colouring. Clyde finally managed to say, “Thanks, that means a lot.”

 The Doctor smiled warmly, and set the sketchbook down between them.

 ********

 The three of them had their pillows under their heads on the ground as they laid on their backs and stared up at the night sky, stargazing. Embers from the fire occasionally drifted into their view. The Doctor had his arms around Luke and Clyde’s shoulders, verbally pointing out stars. They all started to make constellations out of them.

 Luke pointed out a comet and accompanying meteor shower, and they fell silent as they followed it across the sky.

 The younger men tipped their heads sideways onto the Doctor’s shoulders. The Doctor pressed his mouth to the top of their heads in return. All three snuggled closer together as they continued their stargazing, quietly enjoying this time together.


End file.
